Majungasaurus
'''Majungasaurus '''was the king of the Primordial Forest. Majungasaurus was fierce predatory that inhabited Madagascar, and was extremely closely related to Indian dinosaurs. Majungasaurus was an apex, or top predator, and stood at eight feet tall and was 20 feet long. Majungasaurus had a strange dome shaped skull, which was unique among predatory dinosaurs, and had a horn on its forehead. It had a stocky body structure, and had exaggerated muscles on its rib cage. Majungasaurus bore 17 large teeth on its top jaw and on its bottom jaw. Its jaw was designed to bite on its prey, and never let go, until the prey’s death. Majungasaurus was also commonly known to fight other Majungasauruses, and Majungasaurus bones have been found in the stomachs of other Majungasaurus, meaning that they would fight each other in completion for food, and the winner would devour the looser. Cannibalism Although sauropods may have been the prey of choice for Majungasaurus, recent discoveries in Madagascar indicate another surprising component of its diet: other Majungasaurus. Numerous bones of Majungasaurus have been discovered bearing tooth marks identical to those found on sauropod bones from the same localities. These marks have the same spacing as teeth in Majungasaurus jaws, are of the same size as Majungasaurus teeth, and contain smaller notches consistent with the serrations on those teeth. As Majungasaurus is the only large theropod known from the area, the simplest explanation is that it was feeding on other members of its own species. ] Suggestions that the Triassic Coelophysis was a cannibal have been recently disproven, leaving Majungasaurus as the only non-avian theropod with confirmed cannibalistic tendencies,although there is some evidence that cannibalism may have occurred in other species as well. It is unknown if Majungasaurus actively hunted their own kind or only scavenged their carcasses. However, some researchers have noted that modern Komodo monitors sometimes kill each other when competing for access to carcasses. The lizards will then proceed to cannibalize the remains of their rivals, which may suggest similar behavior in Majungasaurus and other theropods. Similarities with Birds Scientists have reconstructed the respiratory system of Majungasaurus based on a superbly preserved series of vertebrae recovered from the Maevarano Formation. Most of these vertebrae and some of the ribs contained cavities that may have resulted from the infiltration of avian-style lungs and air sacs. In birds, the neck vertebrae and ribs are hollowed out by the cervical air sac, the upper back vertebrae by the lung, and the lower back and sacral (hip) vertebrae by the abdominal air sac. Similar features in Majungasaurus vertebrae imply the presence of these air sacs. These air sacs may have allowed for a basic form of avian-style 'flow-through ventilation,' where air flow through the lungs is one-way, so that oxygen-rich air inhaled from outside the body is never mixed with exhaled air laden with carbon dioxide. This method of respiration, while complicated, is highly efficient.The recognition of pneumatic foramina in Majungasaurus, besides providing an understanding of its respiratory biology, also has larger-scale implications for evolutionary biology. The split between the ceratosaur line, which led to Majungasaurus, and the tetanuran line, to which birds belong, occurred very early in the history of theropods. The avian respiratory system, present in both lines, must therefore have evolved before the split, and well before the evolution of birds themselves. This provides further evidence of the dinosaurian origin of birds. Majungasaurus in the Film Majungasaurus was the main antagonist in the film, and was the largest predator in the film. In real life, Deltadromeus would be far larger than Majungasaurus. Behavior There is good evidence that at least some Majungatholus adults preyed on their own kind: paleontologists have discovered Majungatholus bones bearing Majungatholus tooth marks. What's unknown is whether the adults of this genus actively hunted down their living relatives, or simply feasted on the carcasses of already-dead family members (and if the latter is the case, this behavior wouldn't have been unique to Majungatholus, dinosaur-wise). Trivia *Majungasaurus was an apex predator as depicted in the film *Majungasaurus was mistaken as a pachecephalosaur,because of its dom shaped skull. Category:Dinosaurs Category:Theropods Category:characters Category:Characters